Wedding – Jess and Liz

I just want to lay it out for you all, since I don’t want to be a vendor who is vague about the people to whom they offer services – I am absolutely and unequivocally in support of same-sex marriage. I love weddings, I love marriage, and I believe that everyone should have the right to marry the person they love. I’m an equal opportunity vendor – I serve the conservative, the liberal, the straight, the gay, the single, the disabled, the differently-abled, the young, the old, and everything in between. I’m delighted that my straight friends and clients have the opportunity to have beautiful weddings, and I look forward to the day when my gay friends enjoy the same legal right – and I will be at every wedding with a smile on my face and my camera in hand!

Until that day, I say to my gay clients and readers – why wait? You are just as free to have a gorgeous ceremony and reception and dedicate your love to each other. And you should. Why should everyone else get all the fun, stress, and great food?!

Despite the legal prohibitions on marriage at the moment, the most beautiful couple of girls I know decided to have a wedding. I’m not going to exaggerate when I say that it was one of the BEST weddings I have ever been to. Liz and Jess walked in together and had a short, intimate ceremony (conducted by the inimitable celebrant Melissa Soncini) in which they spoke beautiful words of love, of dedication, of lifetime commitment. They kissed, they hugged, and then they celebrated with a fantastic and loud reception at Simmer on the Bay at Dawes Point, in Sydney. They had their own florist almost drown the venue in flower arrangements that contained chillies, capsicums and various fruits, as a nod to their ownership of a fruit and vegetable business. They brought in loads of their personal effects to make it an intimate reflection of their relationship. They collect old gaming machines, so they brought in pinball machines and Pacman tables to the venue, and had towers of – wait for it – donuts! – set on cake plates they made out of old vinyl records. Everything was just so them. It was fun, loud, rambunctious, offbeat, and nothing like any wedding I’d been to before. The food was amazing, their signature cocktail was delicious, the many speeches were hilarious and heartfelt, and the atmosphere was beautiful and happy and amazing.

The brides wanted a pure documentary approach – no posing at all, pretty much. I nabbed them for two minutes, about 90% the way through the reception, and they kissed outside under the harbour lamps, and that was that. Which suits me just fine – documentary is how I roll the best.

I was so happy to have attended this beautiful day, and absolutely honoured to have been asked to photograph it. I look forward to shooting their 50th anniversary  party in 2064 – get planning, girls!

Much love to the beautiful Jess and the wonderful Liz. Many happy days ahead.

(A million pictures are in this post, chosen from the ten million I supplied the clients. I just couldn’t decide between them, and I couldn’t let any of the fabulous details go unposted. It was incredibly hard to just cut it down to this. So get a cup of tea and sink your teeth in to this one!)